Teaching isn’t easy, but when you’ve got that language barrier it’s even more difficult.

So what can be done?

I taught English in China for 5 years. Here are 3 things that helped me improve as an ESL teacher.

They also helped me keep my cool. Remember, part of being a good ESL teacher is not losing it.

The other part is teaching effectively.

Here are some tips for both.

#1 Worrying About MistakesJohn flipped through the teacher book yet again. This time it took him a good ten seconds to find the answer.“Yep, that’s what it is – past progressive.”The students wrote it down in their notebooks…though I expected most would forget that.Another question was called out, and again, John didn’t know the answer, or was at least unsure. He started flipping through the teacher’s book again.I saw this when I was training teachers, watching them teach early classes.Don’t worry about making mistakes!You know English.You don’t need to flip through the book all the time, you don’t need to go with all the fancy jargon.Teach students how to talk, not how to make a grammatically correct sentence. If they can start talking and gain confidence, that grammar can come. It won’t come if they don’t start using the language.So don’t worry about finding the right answer all the time, and don’t worry about saying “I don’t know.”Try to move on, try to get them talking.#2 Stopping to CheckKristen stared down at her notebook, began to chew her thumb.I looked around and noticed the students start to fidget, shuffle about, get bored.Kristen was making one of the biggest mistakes I’d seen teachers make when I was training them – she was stopping to check.Alright, alright – you can argue she was just trying to remember where she was.That’s what she was doing, after all…staring down at her lesson plan to see what the correct answer was.The problem is that she disrupted the class, brought things to a standstill.Don’t slow things down so you can look at your lesson plan or figure out the right answer. Keep things moving so students don’t get bored.#3 Getting Annoyed, or Worse, AngryThat damn Tim.That’s the thought I had as I stared out at Tim sitting there, that smile on his face.He always acted up, always forgot his book, and always gave me a headache in class.One day, I’d show him.You know what…I never did. What I did do was run up my blood pressure needlessly while causing myself undue stress.Who the hell gives a shit what an 11-year old thinks!You’re going to have little bastards in your classes, students that just don’t care about English.Shrug it off – don’t get annoyed.And please don’t get angry.Don’t try to force them into working, or doing extra homework. Just shrug and let them sit in ignorance.Not everyone is going to learn English. The sooner you realize this the more time you can spend on the students that do care.Spend less time on those that don’t. Most of the time they just want attention or laughs from classmates.Ignore them and cut them off. They’ll either get their act together or drop out of your class. If it’s public school the regular teachers will eventually talk with their parents.Mainly, don’t lose sleep over the students that don’t want to learn. It’s not worth the anxiety.ConclusionI hope these ideas help you or give you a new way of looking at things.

​Try to keep your cool and learn from mistakes. That’s what teaching ESL is all about.

That means if you’re a new teacher you’ve been doing this for about 2 months now.

Is it everything you thought it would be?

It’s hard to know what ESL teaching will be like until you start doing it.

You really have no way to prepare for the screaming kids when you’re trying to maintain order, the silent stares when you’re asking an “easy” question, or the pure befuddlement you feel when you get no support from your school or boss.

Yeah, ESL teaching can be tough.

Well…what can you do about it?

The easiest thing is to get online and email your parents and tell them you fucked up.

Get them to buy you a plane ticket back home. It’s safe, it’s easy…you can still get out of this.

But you didn’t do that, and I doubt you will. No, you’ve been at it for 2 months now and you’re going to see it through.

​So…what else can you do?

Maybe a better question is what can you not do?

You’ve already screwed the pooch countless times in class. Hey, we all make tons of mistakes – it’s how you learn.

The good thing is that you’ve learned what doesn’t work and what you never, ever want to do again.

Yeah, I’m talking about those flopped-lessons where you suddenly had a 55 minutes to kill and nothing to do.

Thankfully you know about this site so you had a jeopardy game or adventure or fun vocabulary PowerPoint to fall back on.

But can you really do that everyday, each week?

No, you can’t.

So figure out what doesn’t work and start to analyze why it didn’t work. Then start doing the same with the things that did work.

That’s a bit part of learning, whether it’s English or how the hell to teach it. You have to figure out what’s working for you and then do more of that.

I suggest getting games on my site and PowerPoints you can work lessons around.

If you have some support from your school then I’d suggest working around the book they give you…at least as much as you can.

I remember in 2009 the school wanted me to just teach the same pages that had been taught already that week. Wow, that sure as shit didn’t help me!

So find what’s working and what’s not and see if you can go from there.

​I hope it helps, and don’t be afraid to “bitch” in the comments about your ESL experiences so far.

Yeah, I’m here in America, and have been for more than 2 years now. My teaching days ended in the spring of 2013. I’m willing to be that for some of you, your ESL teaching career has just begun.

Let’s not call it a career – let’s call it a journey. It’s been a journey so far.

﻿Perhaps you’re way over in the Middle Kingdom like I was. China is an interesting place, and can take some time to get used to.

Maybe you’re in Russia, just beginning to feel the pinch of winter…for I’m not sure if there’s an autumn in that country.

It could be you’re sweating something fierce down there in Thailand, hitting the beaches up in the evenings and on the weekends, drink in hand.

I bet you might be in Korea, the South of course, and having quite a blast in those advanced metropolises…or small hamlets.

The UK is a fine place, and I bet some of you hail from there. Yep, ESL is taught in English-speaking countries.

France has a sizable ESL-teacher-contingent, for there’s plenty of migration from the former colonies of Africa.

I bet you could even be south of the border, down there in Mexico. ﻿

I know that you’re in one of those places most likely. I know this because I can track my site’s analytics.

Wherever you’re from, I hope you find some helpful advice, some games that work, and just something to read when you’re feeling a little bummed out.

Yeah, you’ll get bummed out quite a bit your first year of teaching.

It could be the culture shock or just the sheer difficulty of teaching English to students that often aren’t the best behaved.

Hey – you’re out there in the world, you’re doing it! Most people are afraid to leave their country. You’ve already done what so many couldn’t. I bet you’ll continue to impress yourself as the year continues. Hang in there – you can do it!

Let’s face it – grammar isn’t the most fun to teach. Your students aren’t excited about it, and you probably aren’t either. That’s why this grammar exercises PowerPoint will help you. Take a look:

ESL Grammar Lessons that Work

As you can see, it’s a gap-fill exercise. What I really like about it, however, are the articles.Yeah…articles.

That’s what I call those words like “to” “of” at” and other ones like it. You can see them at the top of that slide, and students need to shout out the answer.

The trick is to make it fun. Try dividing your class into teams or small groups and having them shout out the answer or raise their hands. You can put a point system in place and really kill some time. Oh, and students learn grammar too, see:

ESL Grammar Exercises PPT

Fun Grammar PowerPoint for Students

There are lots of ideas with this grammar exercises PowerPoint. It’s 27-slides and with a little copy/paste work and some sentence structures from your book you can make it a lot longer.

It’s $0.99 and I’m sure you’ll improve some English with it…maybe even your own. Get your copy today!

Are your ESL students bad? I’m not talking about their language ability, but their behavior. Is their behavior bad? If you have young kids, chances are good that it is. And let’s come right out and talk about this word “bad.” What is bad behavior…and does it even exist? While I’m sure there are some expert teachers with lots of degrees and maybe even decades of teaching experience, I’m not one. I did teach in China for 5 years in a variety of settings, however, and I saw my share of bad behavior.

What is Bad ESL Behavior?

I classify bad behavior in ESL students as follows:

Talking with friends;

Talking or playing on the phone;

Being out of your desk;

Throwing things;

Speaking in the native language;

Taunting or teasing classmates;

Making noises.

That list is by no means exhaustive, and you’ll notice that I don’t include not paying attention or working on other school work. I’d rather have a student do those things than be disruptive, which is really what a lot of bad ESL behavior is – being disruptive. I find this comes about because the student is not interested. Most of the time they’re not interested because the lesson is boring or because they don’t have the skill level to understand it. So they act out, become disruptive, and your life sucks. What can you do? For a long time I yelled at these bad students, but really, that doesn’t work much. Instead, try these 10 easy ideas.

10 Ideas Instead of Shouting

Make the student stand up

Send the student to the teacher’s office

Have them write lines

Seat the student with the boys/girls

Separate problem students

Put the student in another class

Give extra homework…and follow through

Have them sit or stand by the board

Write their name on the board, and don’t say why

Call them out and have them explain something from the lesson

Those are all little tricks you can try. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. Just try another. Yelling doesn’t do much, and you don’t need to lose your voice. Try some of these ESL behavior tips next time you’re having problems. And with fall classes coming up soon, I have a feeling you’ll have many problems. Good luck, and stay positive.